Coordinates | 39°44′21″N104°59′5″N |
---|---|
Company name | Thorn EMI |
Company logo | |
Company type | Public |
Fate | Demerged and subsequently broken up |
Foundation | Merger of Thorn Electrical Industries and The EMI Group, 1979 |
Location city | London |
Location country | England, UK |
Key people | Sir Richard Cave Founding ChairmanSir John Reid, Founding Chief Executive |
Industry | Music, Video, Defence Equipment |
Parent | Reeves Communications |
Subsid | Seagram, EMI, PBS |
Thorn EMI was a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail. Created in October 1979 when Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but it demerged again in 1996.
In May 1984 the Company attempted to merge with British Aerospace and in July 1984 it bought the micro-chip manufacturer, INMOS.
Thorn EMI acquired the Mullard Equipment Limited ('MEL') division of Philips in 1990.
On 16 August 1996, Thorn EMI shareholders voted in favour of demerging Thorn from EMI again: the Company became EMI Group plc, and the electronics and rentals divisions were divested as Thorn plc.
This shareholding was inherited from the 1967 purchase of the Associated British Picture Corporation by EMI. The deal included their interests in the ITV company ABC Weekend Television. Through an enforced merger with Rediffusion London, this became Thames.
In 1985 the company attempted to sell their stake to Carlton Communications but this was blocked by the governing body of ITV, the Independent Broadcasting Authority.
The MEL Division, acquired from Philips, was involved in radar, electronic warfare and communications. The MEL communications business was sold to Thomson-CSF, now Thales.
In 1995 the various defence businesses were sold:
From 1981 till about 1983, Thorn EMI Video Programmes was based in the Thorn EMI head office near Seven Dials in central London. They moved from there to an office in Soho and the name changed to just Thorn EMI Video. TEV later became Creative Sparks.
After Thorn's demerger, this division started operating as Quadriga
By 1992, the Ferguson TV factory in Gosport had closed, ending a long period of manufacturing of Ferguson TVs in the UK.
VCRs were sourced until the early 1990s by a joint company called J2T, established by JVC, Thorn (Ferguson) and Telefunken. From around 1991, VCRs were sourced from Thomson alone.
One important aspect of Thorn EMI’s business was its ability to manufacture, say, one of its Ferguson televisions and then to make it available for rental through its rentals sector or sell it through its retail sector.
Prism Micro Products was owned by Thorn EMI for a short period in the 1980s.
Thorn EMI joined HBO in 1985 to be named Thorn EMI HBO Video. In 1986, Cannon films bought Thorn EMI's video library, but HBO stayed and became HBO/Cannon Video. Cannon left operations and was eventually just called HBO Video in 1987.
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